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Kilogram
The kilogram or kilogramme, (symbol: kg) is the SI base unit of mass. It is defined as being equal to the mass of the international prototype of the kilogram. It is the only SI base unit that employs a prefix http://www.bipm.org/en/si/history-si/name_kg.html, and the only SI unit that is still defined in relation to an artifact rather than to a fundamental physical property. A kilogram is equivalent to 2.205 avoirdupois pounds in the that is still used in the United States, although usage is officially discouraged and the metric system is the preferred system of use. Definition The kilogram was originally defined as the mass of one litre of pure water at a temperature of 3.98 degrees Celsius and standard atmospheric pressure. This definition was hard to realize accurately, partially because the density of water depends ever-so-slightly on the pressure, and pressure units include mass as a factor, introducing a circular dependency in the definition of the kilogram. To avoid these problems, the kilogram was redefined as precisely the mass of a particular standard mass created to approximate the original definition. Since 1889, the SI system defines the unit to be equal to the mass of the international prototype of the kilogram, which is made from an alloy of platinum and iridium of 39 mm height and diameter, and is kept at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (International Bureau of Weights and Measures). For more details see history at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilogram The gram The gram or gramme is the term to which SI prefixes are applied. The gram was the base unit of the older CGS system of measurement, a system which is no longer widely used. Proposed future definitions There is an ongoing effort to introduce a new definition for the kilogram by way of fundamental or atomic constants. The proposals being worked on are: Atom-counting approaches * The Avogadro http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avogadro%27s_number approach attempts to define the kilogram as a fixed number of silicon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon\ atoms. As a practical realization, a sphere would be used and its size would be measured by interferometry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferometry. * The ion accumulation approach involves accumulation of gold atoms and measuring the electrical current required to neutralise them. Fundamental-constant approaches * The kilogram is the base unit of mass, equal to 1 097 769 238 499 215 084 016 780 676 223 me electron mass units. where me = 9.109382616 x10 -³¹Kg * The Watt balance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt_balance uses the current balance that was formerly used to define the ampere to relate the kilogram to a value for Planck's constant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck%27s_constant, based on the definitions of the volt and the ohm. Just as the meter was redefined to fix the speed of light to an exact value, this would have the effect of fixing Planck's constant to an exact value. A possible definition would be: : The kilogram is the mass of a body at rest whose equivalent energy corresponds to a frequency of exactly (299792458)2/6626069311 × 1043 Hz. * The levitated superconductor approach relates the kilogram to electrical quantities by levitating a superconducting body in a magnetic field generated by a superconducting coil, and measuring the electrical current required in the coil. * Since the values of the Josephson (CIPM (1988) Recommendation 1, PV 56; 19) and [Klitzing constant [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Klitzing_constan (CIPM (1988), Recommendation 2, PV 56; 20) constants have been given conventional values, it is possible to combine these values (KJ ≡ 4.835 979 Hz/V and RK ≡ 2.581 280 7 Ω) with the definition of the ampere to define the kilogram as follows: :The kilogram is the mass which would be accelerated at precisely 2 m/s² if subjected to the per metre force between two straight parallel conductors of infinite length, of negligible circular cross section, placed 1 metre apart in vacuum, through which flow a constant current of exactly 6.241 509 629 152 65 elementary charges per second. Link with weight When the weight of an object is given in kilograms, the property intended is almost always mass. Occasionally the gravitational force on an object is given in "kilograms", but the unit used is not a true kilogram: it is the deprecated kilogram-force (kgf), also known as the kilopond (kp). An object of mass 1 kg at the surface of the Earth will be subjected to a gravitational force of approximately 9.80665 newtons (the SI unit of force). Note that the factor of 980.665 cm/s² (as the CGPM defined it, when cgs systems were the primary systems used) is only an agreed-upon conventional value (3rd CGPM (1901), CR 70) whose purpose is to define grams force. The local gravitational acceleration g'' varies with latitude and altitude and location on the Earth, so before this conventional value was agreed upon, the gram-force was only an ill-defined unit. (See also , a standard measure of gravitational acceleration.) Examples * Attogram: a research team at made a detector using with sub-attogram sensitivity. *Yoctogram: can be used for masses of , , and . It is a little large for light particles, but yocto- is the last official prefix in the sequence. **The coefficient is close to the reciprocal of : 1 = 1.66054 yg ** Although the unified atomic mass unit is often convenient as a unit, one may sometimes want to use yoctograms to relate easily to other SI values. **Mass of a free : 0.00091 yg **Mass of a free : 1.6726 yg **Mass of a free : 1.6749 yg SI multiples * Warning!: mcg is often used because the µ symbol may be unavailable; however, this is misleading and dangerous (if not wrong) because, in SI, mcg means millicentigram, not microgram. See also * orders of magnitude (mass) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_%28mass%29 for comparisons with other masses * Metric system * SI External links *National Physical Laboratory FAQ on kilogram definition, the need for a new definition, and some alternatives *Conversion Calculator for Units of MASS (& Weight) *More on the NIST Watt Balance *Redefinition of the kilogram: a decision whose time has come *More on the Avogadro project *Conversion: Units of Weight *Le Bureau International des Poids et Mesures *Attogram Detection *[http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7208&feedId=online-news_rss20 ''World's most sensitive scales weigh a zeptogram, by New Scientist.com] Category:SI units Category:International standards